A press release today announcing that Studiocanal has picked up the UK, French and German rights to the 2013 RoboCop reboot offered a few more details about a UK release date, the plot, and what Omnicorp gets up to in the modern world. Here's what it had to say:

"In RoboCop, the year is 2029 and multinational conglomerate OmniCorp is at the centre of robot technology. Their drones are winning American wars around the globe and now they want to bring this technology to the home front. Alex Murphy is a loving husband, father and good cop doing his best to stem the tide of crime and corruption in Detroit. After he is critically injured in the line of duty, OmniCorp utilises their remarkable science of robotics to save Alex's life. He returns to the streets of his beloved city with amazing new abilities, but with issues a regular man has never had to face before."

OK, so that is basically the same story we've seen before in Paul Verhoeven's 1987 sci-fi outing, but the touch about drones feels like a nod to current controversies over their use in war, and suggests that this film might not entirely abandon its predecessor's satirical tone. Right?

In any case, the good news is that we now have a confirmed UK release date of August 9, 2013, which gives director José Padilha, star Joel Kinnaman and their team - including Gary Oldman and Samuel L. Jackson - something to work towards as they move through pre-production.

I think the design of Robocop is hugely important. You want it to look similar but also different to the 1987 suit and look cool and be functional. The late Ken Russell said Verhoeven's Robocop was the best science fiction film since Metropolis, these rebooters have their work cut out for them. More